Many materials such as paint not only have to be mixed in order to obtain a wanted hue, but also the materials of the paint tend to separate in storage and they have to be mixed (homogenized) before using even though no coloring material should be added.
There are many power-operated paint stirrers all of which must be used with the paint can cover removed and of course this results in splashing and many times in poor mixing efficiency so that the stirrer has to be used for a relatively long period of time and moved around inside the container to make sure that the entire content is thoroughly mixed.
Another way of accomplishing the mixing is to shake the can while closed and there are apparatuses on the market for this purpose. However it is difficult and time consuming to add pigmentation, etc. to the already packaged paint because the cover must be removed and replaced after adding the paint in order to take advantage of the shaking action of the shaking apparatus, which sometimes takes as much as an hour or more to actually mix the paint. Shaking and stirring are very different procedures and in most cases the shaking takes a relatively long period of time to accomplish.
It is the object of this invention to provide an in-place stirrer which operates on the material to be mixed when the container is completely closed. It has been found that through the use of this invention materials e.g., paint, can be mixed in a few seconds.